a poem by malka heifetz tussman

Love the Ruins

With one letter of your many names

you broke in --

and now you live

your own hot life in me.

With one sound of your many names

you pierced yourself in me --

and now you feed

on my heart's blood.

Soon

you will shatter me

from within.

Then gather up the splinters,

and love the ruins,

my God.

Tussman, Malka Heifetz. "Love the Ruins" Voices Within The Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets. New York: Avon Books, 1980.